Baby steps

Posted by Nicole

It took a while, but we finally talked to a real estate agent. Well, technically, we went to an open house across the street from my in-laws’ home and talked to the Realtor there. It was the first time I’ve actually articulated what we want in a home — silly, but saying it out loud makes the process a bit more real!

I gave her a price point for us (low for the town we’re looking in), and in typical real estate agent way, she pointed out that homes priced $50K more aren’t going for their asking prices. She explained that homes listed at these higher prices are really selling in our range, as more homeowners are taking what they can get for their houses. Sure, sounds good in theory, but I’d still rather stay in our lower range — it would make it that much sweeter to get a home even cheaper than what we say is our range.

I suppose now we seriously need our own agent and mortgage preapproval in order to seriously go out and see what the inventory is like. Mortgage rates are at historical lows, and getting an $8,000 tax credit for closing on a home before December 1 is a pretty damn good incentive. Plus, this may be our only chance to buy in our preferred town for a long while.

Putting down 20% is a scary thought. Then again, so is paying a mortgage, property taxes and all of the associated costs!

Anyone out there buy a house that was more than what they originally said was their limit? How did your home-buying process go — was it smooth, or chaotic?